Sewing Machines Used for Making Shirts

List of Sewing Machines Used for

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Different types of sewing machines are available for sewing shirts. A single list of sewing does not fit for all. You have to select only those machines that you can utilize in your set-up whether it is a very small set-up or a large  factory. In this post, you will learn name of the machines used for shirt manufacturing in two different scenarios.

    i) Machines used by Tailoring Shops (Make Through System)
    ii) Machines used by garment factories where production is done for large volume.

Tailoring Shop: In tailoring shop, basic shirts are made using one Single Needle Lock Stitch machine only. Attaching button and making button holes in front placket and cuffs are done manually. Now-a-days tailoring shops install over lock machine to give clean finish and stopping fraying of yarns in underarm and side seam. In most of the tailoring shops custom made shirt are stitched. They normally use umbrella machine.
Secondly, button holing and button attaching operations are outsourced for giving better finish and give a factory made look.

Therefore, in case you have a plan of starting a tailoring shop or a boutique with couple of sewing machines an over lock machine (also known as interlock) and single needle lock stitch machine would be enough.

Image credit: Laguna Clothing

In Garment Factory: In the small and medium shirt making factories, industrial sewing machines with latest technology is used to make shirts in large volume (mass production). Industrial sewing machines are used for getting production per day per person, to get consistency in quality and workmanship. In another post I have mentioned detailed list of sewing machines and non-sewing machine used for making shirt in a factory. Also I have mentioned list of operations to be made by different types of sewing machine.
Just for your quick reference a list of sewing machines are shown below. Automatic and semi-automatic machines are excluded from the list.

• Single Needle Lock Stitch (three different types of SNLS machines are used depending on operation. Normal lock stitch machine, with under bed trimmer and equipped with edge cutter)
• Feed off the Arm
• Multi-needle chain stitch machine (e.g. Kansai Special)
• Double needle lock stitch machine
• Button holing machine
• Button Sewing machine

It is not necessary that you have to use all above listed machines to make quality shirts. Selection of machines depends on the construction of the shirt and its styling. There are few operations in shirt those can be stitched various ways.

For example, Operation side seam of a shirt can be made in 3 ways

- Five thread over lock machine (Safety stitch)
- Flat and fell seam by using single needle lock stitch machine.
- Feed off the Arm

See Also: Operation Breakdown of a Full Sleeve Shirt

Some factories use semi automatic machines for sewing garment parts, like attaching chest pocket, making front plackets etc.

Post your comments if you need further details on machine requirement for shirt unit.

How Many Shirts One Can Make per Machine per Day?

How Many Shirts One Can Make per Machine per Day? (Based on Productivity Survey)

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Are you a shirt manufacturer? Or are you a Production Manager of a shirt manufacturing factory? If yes, then this is a must read article for you.

You might be thinking what should be the machine productivity and what the maximum productivity level can be reached. This study results will give you a broad idea how other factories are doing. How many pieces they are making per day?

Shirt Productivity per machine per day would depend on few factors such as - technology usage, availability of machine and equipment, product styling, skill level of the workers, daily working hours and on few other factors. 

Forget about these factors for a moment and see the real picture. How many shirts are made by factories per day per machine? From this online survey result I found that there is a big gap in between minimum and maximum machine productivity figures. It ranges from 6.67 pieces to 28.57 pieces per day (formal shirts). So there is a big opportunity for low productivity groups.

Background of the survey:

Couple of months ago (January 2014) I have conducted a survey on Shirt Productivity (Productivity Study of Shirt Manufacturing). Participants were mostly from India and Bangladesh. Data have been collected for both formal shirts and casual shirts. Factories work 8 to 10 hours per day. Few factories did not mention how many hours they work daily. Few of them may work more than 10 hours in a day.

Data was received from 55 participants. All abnormal entries are discarded. After discarding abnormal entries we have following results.

In the result I have not considered productivity factors such as number of working hours, technology level and operator's skill level. I have calculated productivity per machine per day irrespective of number of hours factories work daily. Read on the survey results and comment on these.

Survey Results: Formal Shirts

Number of participants: 33
Minimum productivity per machine per day: 6.67 Pieces
Maximum productivity per machine per day: 28.57 Pieces
Median: 15.71

Frequency of companies in different productivity groups are shown in the following diagram (Fig. 1)

Survey Results: Casual Shirts

Number of participants: 15
Minimum productivity per machine per day: 5 pieces
Maximum productivity per machine per day: 32.4 pieces
Median: 11.67

Frequency of companies in different productivity groups are shown in the following diagram (Fig. 2)

Conclusion:

You have seen that shirt manufacturing units work at difference performance level. You have to decide where you like reach. When some factories are making 20 pieces of shirts per machine per day, you can also make that much quantity provided you aim for that and act accordingly.

For further productivity study data you can refer the book by Dr. Bheda "Improving Productivity in the Garment Industry"

Question for Readers: What is you machine productivity?

Did you find this study useful?   Share it with your friends who need this information.

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